Even the least political minded people these days will be hard-pressed not to have an opinion about what is going on in American politics today. But providing a needed distraction from the strife between democrats and republicans is the news of Arizona Senator John McCain's surprising brain cancer diagnosis.

This sad and unexpected news has brought politicians and citizens alike to take a pause from their party agenda and focus on the long standing service and patriotism that Senator McCain represents, and in a way, focus on our own love for this great country that unites us all.

Adding more perspective to Senator McCain's life is a recent twitter post from his 32-year-old daughter Meghan McCain, who helps us better understand his life outside of politics!

John McCain was born in 1936 and followed in the steps of his father and grandfather by serving in the United States Navy. As a naval aviator during the Vietnam war, he was eventually taken as prisoner of war and sustained torture which left him with lifelong physical disabilities. But none of that was enough to shake off his patriotism for his homeland.

In her very personal statement, Meghan helped shed a different kind of light on Senator McCain, this time as a father and a family man. She says:

"My love for my father is boundless, and like any daughter I cannot and do not wish to be in a world without him. I have faith that those days remain far away. Yet even in this moment, my fears for him are overwhelmed by one thing above all: gratitude for our years together, and the years still to come. He is a warrior at dusk, one of the greatest Americans of our age, and the worthy heir to his father's and grandfather's name. But to me he is something more. He is my strength, my example, my refuge, my confidante, my teacher, my rock, my hero - my dad."

Meghan also took this opportunity to genuinely connect with those who too have suffered along a loved one diagnosed with terminal illness:

"... now we live with the anxiety about what comes next. It is an experience familiar to us, given my father's previous battle with cancer - and it is familiar to the countless American families whose loved ones are also stricken with the tragedy of disease and the inevitability of age. If we could ask anything of anyone now, it would be the prayers of those of you who understand this all too well. We would be so grateful for them."

While only a few reports have been released in the media of how Senator McCain is coping with his health, Meghan provides a rare glimpse at his state of mind since the diagnosis:

"It won't surprise you to learn that in all this the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him. The aggressions of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has."

At this point, Meghan's heartfelt tweet has been shared more than 32,000 times, received over 140,000 likes, with thousands of people leaving comments of support.